Yeah! Italy won!!

Italy was able to overcome a bogus penalty shot and win the World Cup on penalty kicks. Others have said that this year’s edition was rather boring and I will admit that at times it was, but at least they were able to keep the French from winning. Zinedine Zidane won the award for most valuable player of the World Cup but I think that was to make up for him being sent off for a head butt just before the end of the game. The Italian goalkeeper, Luigi Buffon should have won that award.

The Italian team produced 12 goals over seven games during this World Cup which equaled it’s output during the 1982 World Cup in Spain. However, these 12 goals were spread across 10 different players with only two, Luca Toni and Marco Matarazzi getting more than one (2 each). You might say that the Italians didn’t have a very good attack but you could also say that all the members of their team could score goals and shutting down one player wasn’t enough to shutdown the Italian attack. The Italians gave up two goals, with the opposition only scored one real goal against them (the French had that honor), the other being the "own goal" during the US game. However, the US had a goal taken away and the US-Italy game ended tied. Since Italy won the World Cup, the US-Italy tie takes on a whole new meaning since the US was down 9 men to 10 and they were able to play the Italians to a standstill. Too bad the US didn’t win that game.

Now, let's hope that the US can get it's head out for the World Cup in 2010.